The Price We Pay
by Justinia Invitica
Summary: Despite how hard he fought, history has repeated itself. Rythian has lost everything, everything except her, and the price he payed for even that was more than he could ever have imagined. Can the Ender Mage carry on after the destruction of Blackrock, or will he fall back into a life of loneliness and despair. Blackrock Chronicles after Rebirth


**Chapter 1 – The Fall**

"_Rythian I lo…"_

Rythian felt the explosion before he saw it, like the hand which had been slowly worming its way around his heart had suddenly clenched.

The mage had been doing his best to distract himself and not dwell on what Zoeya was currently doing back at what remained of Blackrock, as hard as that was turning out to be. He had busied himself setting up temporary pens for the animals and making sure their small pack were generally happy and comfortable. Rythian had caught himself talking to the animals a couple of times, chuckling slightly as he began to realise how much his apprentice had rubbed off on him. He had started to play with Ghost, lovingly wrestling with the energetic wolf, when the wave of darkness and despair washed over him.

Without even hesitating Rythian activated his ring and flew full speed towards home, causing Ghost to yelp in surprise at the sudden movement. The mage flew with pure instinct, the ground passing by him like a blur as he pushed himself to move faster than he ever had before. Deep down he knew that something was very wrong in the world, some primordial sense of disaster was enveloping him and the only thing he could think about right then was having Zoeya in his arms as soon as physically possible.

Moments later the beautiful green landscape which had been rushing by him was replaced by an intense white flash. Rythian threw his arms up in a feeble attempt to shield his eyes from the binding light but the damage had already been done, the mage felt himself hit the ground despite his armour protecting him from any real damage being dealt by the fall. Stunned and dazed, Rythian pushed himself into a sitting position, rapidly blinking and clutching his life stone with the hope of quickly healing his burnt retainers. Slowly but surely colour began to flood back into his vision as he begun to take in his surroundings.

The mage had landed near the summit of a small hill which overlooked the edge of the swampy valley where he had made his home over the past few years, an orange glow had enveloped the land as if the sun was touching the horizon but Rythian knew for a fact that the sun had set hours ago. Looking further down the valley towards where he would normally expect his proud fortress to stand he found the source of all the abnormalities.

Rythian was subjected to horrible flashbacks to the final days of the old world as he stared in complete terror at the colossal pillar of fire and smoke before him. All the fear, all the pain that he had been fleeing and avenging over the past few years all suddenly burst through the dam that the mage had been building for so long. No matter how hard he tired, no matter how tirelessly he fought, he could never stop history from repeating itself.

The shockwave and noise of the nuclear explosion hit Rythian simultaneously, throwing him back to the ground and causing his ears to start painfully ringing in response. The mage just lay there, defeated, all the hardships he had endured were ultimately for nothing, there was no reason to keep fighting so he might as well finally rest right here. As Rythian closed his eyes his mind began to wander to think instead to better times, to the comfortable silence he would share with Teep on their hunting trips, to the quirky and eccentric jokes of Nilsey, to the times he would spend just drinking the days away with Ravs, to the warm evenings he would spend cuddled up with Zoeya under the stars just talking nonsense to each other… Zoeya… Zoeya

Zoeya

"Zoeya!"

Rythian's eyes shot open as he screamed her name to the heavens, the feeling of defeat rapidly fleeted as the thought of her cleared his mind. The mage once again activated his ring and flew directly towards the blast itself, fear was absent as Rythian now had one goal and one thought in his mind; he was going to save the girl he loved.

Rythian began to feel the heat from the explosion despite the protection of the volcanite amulet as he approached the mushroom cloud. The mage cast a detect life incantation on the surrounding area in an attempt to find any survivors of the blast, the spell normally allowed him to see the host of small rodents and wildlife which inhabited every nook and cranny of the world, but this was the first time he couldn't detect a single hint of life anywhere in the area. Now within the mushroom cloud itself Rythian looked around desperately in every direction but saw no tell-tale shimmer of life through the thick smoke which surrounded him, he was alone in the crater of his home. On the verge of giving up hope he finally cast his eyes upwards to scan the sky, there he saw a faint and flickering shimmer in the distance.

Rythian instantly flew towards the shimmer despite knowing deep down that it was most likely a bird of some kind, breaching the top of the mushroom cloud as he desperately clung onto the last morsel of hope that he would see her again. Despite the tremendous speed the mage was moving he observed that the lifeform was approaching far faster than he anticipated, he realised all too late that it was falling towards him with extreme velocity.

The shimmering object shot past Rythian like a bullet, he only managed to glimpse a short flash of red before whatever it was fell far below him and its clarity faded. The mage quickly deactivated his ring and he felt the pull of gravity return as he began to move back the way he came, Rythian turned to face the ground and dove like a bird to fall as fast as he could in an attempt to catch up with the life form. Homing in on the shimmer below he willed himself towards it as he reached terminal velocity, however the ground was quickly approaching and Rythian soon realised he wasn't going to catch the object in time. Activating his void ring the mage attempted to lock his vision onto the approaching shimmer, knowing full well that he only had one shot at this he muttered a quick prayer before making the jump.

The world seemed to slow as Rythian teleported, he instinctively closed his eyes whilst making the jump but as he opened them he was greeted by a sight he would never forget. In front of him was the unconscious bloodied, beaten and beautiful face of Zoeya, somehow calm and still despite the chaos that surrounded her. Rythian threw his arms around his apprentice and reactivated his ring to try and slow the pair's decent, glancing down towards the ground the mage realised that it wasn't going to be fast enough and so he positioned himself to protect the girl from the inevitable impact.

Pain exploded up Rythian's back as he hit the lake like a comet, his armour and body nearly reaching its limits due to the punishments it had received over the past number of minutes. Despite this agony the mage kept his focus solely on keeping a tight grasp on the redhead he was holding onto, knowing that if he let go now he would lose her forever. Kicking his legs against the cold waters of the lake, Rythian dragged himself and Zoeya towards the orange glow which lit the water's surface.

The mage felt warm air hit his face as he gasped for breath, he took care in making sure that Zoeya's head was also above the waterline though he was still unsure of whether she was breathing or not. Looking around, Rythian took in the hellish landscape which surrounded the pair. Flaming black rocks hurtled down from the sky which the mage realised with horror were the remains of his home, fire had completely overrun the land as entire forests had already been engulfed, above it all rose the slowly fading pillar of smoke which was the source of all this nightmare.

Trying his best to ignore the sight, Rythian kicked his legs once again and began to swim towards the close by beach which was thankfully devoid of any fire. The mage soon felt solid ground beneath him and he stood up in the waist high water, wading through the breakwater towards dry land. Rythian stumbled the last few steps and immediately collapsed on the ground after placing the girl in his arms down on the sand. As he lay there for a couple of seconds to gather himself he took in the tragic beauty of the nuclear sky, with the tranquil sunset orange perfectly contrasting the squeals from the burning creatures that were littering the landscape.

He snapped out of this trance as he heard the hitched breath of the girl lying next to him, looking over Rythian quickly strangled to his feet as he could not see the tell-tale sign of Zoeya's chest rising and falling. As the mage stood over the body of his apprentice the shimmering glow which surrounded her courtesy of the detect life spell slowly started to flicker and then disappear entirely, there was no trace of life left in the young girl's body.

Rythian's world and vision closed and blackened until only she was left, in that moment there was nothing else in the entire universe which had even a speck of importance when compared to the remains of the girl that lay before him. He utterly refused to let her die, he had lost too much already in too similar a way, last time had almost devastated him and she was the only thing that put him back on track, he couldn't go through that again without her, all that he had gone through over the past years to build a new life for the two of them couldn't be for nothing, it can't end like this.

These thoughts and a million others whirled around in Rythian's brain like a hurricane of emotions; anger, love, loss and fear all mixed together to create a feeling which was entirely new to the ancient mage, a feeling which whilst scary made Rythian bristle with immense amounts of primordial energy. Without truly knowing what he was doing he raised his hand to focus his power on his love, instinct allowed him to channel an incantation in a language that had not been spoken in generations. The surrounding air cooled and the cacophony of noise softened as Rythian drew upon the ambient energy found in the atmosphere, but this was a hungry spell which the mage was casting, and this source was soon spent. He instead started to consume the life-force of the plants and creatures in the area around him, using his remaining hand to first raze and then absorb the living matter into powering the incantation. This normally vast well of energy was too quickly spent, due to the fact that most life had already been devastated by the nuke and all this did was compound the damage.

Though it pained him dearly Rythian realised that he needed a far larger energy source than those naturally found, he needed the power locked away on the tools and relics he carried with him. His armour, weapons, amulets, rings and stones that he had carefully crafted over many years held within them immense levels of magic which the mage himself had poured into them over all that time. With his shaky free hand Rythian touched each one of his precious items and broke the binding spell which bound their magic to the item, as the energy began to leak out of them the air around his other hand crackled and shifted with an unseen force. But even as the glow of his armour began to fade, the shades around his rings started to dissipate and the weapons on his back started to dull he knew that even this monumental sacrifice would not be enough. Rythian could feel the spell faltering and spluttering from the lack of energy, he knew that more power was required and furthermore he knew there was only one place left to draw from.

The mage placed his free hand on his chest and begun to channel energy directly out of his very being, energy from his soul, his very life-force. Pain shot up and down his spine and Rythian was forced onto his knees, regardless he managed to keep his focus and the spell soon corrected itself and settled down. He began screaming as he drew from the power that was deeply set within his soul, it felt like he was being torn up from the inside out, but his determination pushed him to go further. Rythian could feel that the incantation was near completion, but it needed just a little more to push it over the edge, with tears freely flowing from his eyes the mage ripped what power was left within him and threw it forward.

The incantation was finally complete, and a glow surrounded his hand as he focused his mind on the body of his love, lightning arched from this glow and struck the chest of Zoeya and caused her to glow in response. Fatigue finally overcame Rythian and he fell first onto his hands and then onto his chest, just before he closed his eyes he saw his apprentice's chest raise and fall once again.

She was alive.

Now he could rest.


End file.
